Darralee Mathews
Town Board Members make important decisions for Palisade
Ever since April 1904 when the newly formed Town of Palisade held it’s first Town Board meeting, Palisade has been governed by an elected mayor and six board members, who serve for a period of four years.
The board is responsible for making laws and policies in the town and developing a balanced budget for town services. They make decisions about infrastructure like the water treatment plant and sewer. They are directly responsible for hiring and dismissing the Administrator.
The board members receive a monthly enumeration for board meetings. They are limited to two terms.
They presently meet twice a month on the second and fourth Tuesdays. The meetings start at 6 p.m. at the Palisade Civic Center, 341 W. 7th St.
The duties of a board member can be pretty time consuming.
Board members are expected to read the meeting packet that they receive prior to the meeting. The packets can be quite large as there are reports, copies of ordinances, and other information the members need to be able to make decisions on the items on the agenda.
In addition to the two board meetings, each board member is assigned a “job” as a liaison to other committees including the Planning Commission (which also meets twice a month), Tourism Advisory Board, Palisade Chamber of Commerce, Grand Valley Transit, the 5-2-1 Drainage District, AGNC, the Riverfront Commission,
One other “duty” of the board members is to serve peaches and ice cream at the Thursday evening Palisade Social during the week of Peach Festival. It is always nice to see Palisade elected officials in attendance at town events, participating in whatever is going on.